The game was an instant IPL classic. It is not easy to defend 170-odd at Wankhede when the outfield is soaked with buckets full of dew. It is not easy to chase down the same score when you are down to 87-5 in 12.3 overs.
It is not easy to reach 170 in the first place, as Rajasthan Royals did batting first on a slow wicket. Jos Buttler has two facets to his batting – the clean striker and the accumulator. The simplicity with which he switches between these two forms within the microcosm of T20 batting is marvellous. He can smack you for a hundred in 60-odd balls one innings, and then play sensibly to 70 off 47 balls the very next game.
Within that 47-ball knock, there is another art form. Buttler can condense this batting skill within a single T20 innings as well. At the halfway stage during Rajasthan’s batting on Tuesday, he had crawled to 31 off 25 balls. The next 22 balls produced 39 runs, not the greatest strike-rate, but eventually it paid off from a greater point of view as concerns Rajasthan.
It is not easy, either, to reduce the chasing side to 87-5 with loads of dew around. That is the sheer genius of Yuzvendra Chahal. Royal Challengers Bangalore made a hectic start – 55 off 42 balls. The next 33 balls saw them losing five wickets for 32 runs. Chahal picked up two of those and effected Virat Kohli’s run out. Despite bowling with a wet ball, he found grip and induced slow turn off the Wankhede strip.
Rajasthan’s first choice playing eleven represents a fantasy pick from across the board. If their owners sat down and decided on select names before the auctions, given their current squad, they probably nailed down almost every one of their targets. Among the lot, Chahal is arguably the best buy. For INR6.5 crore? Four overs. 2-15. Chahal’s economy on the night was 3.8 at a dew-laden Wankhede.
Of course, there is a raging debate on social media if Bangalore should have retained Chahal. It is a no-brainer. Yes, they should have. He played 100-plus T20 games for the franchise, second only to Kohli, and his impact with the ball at the small-sized Chinnaswamy was stupendous. Beyond the fact that Chahal is arguably the best white-ball spinner in India today, his connect with the RCB fans also made him indispensable. And yet, they chose to look the other way, not even offering a retention contract to the leg spinner.
Perhaps they wanted to buy him back in the auctions, you said? No, Bangalore didn’t even bid for Chahal. In a way, it was sheer disrespectful. And this is a decision that could potentially cost Bangalore for years to come. Why? Sample this. RCB needed 32 off the last 24 deliveries at one stage. Chahal came on to bowl the 17th over. Despite needing 8-per-over, RCB batsmen decided to play safe and knocked the ball around off Chahal’s bowling, collecting four singles in that over. If, ever, there was debate regarding Chahal and RCB’s retention policy, these six balls ended it.
Of course, RCB won on the night, but that is beside the above point. How did they do it? Well, the answer is Dinesh Karthik and his brilliance to not only manoeuvre the field placements but also negotiate Chahal cleverly. “When I went in, we needed 12 runs per over and had to keep going. I train for these situations – knowing how to stay calm and whom you can take down,” he said, after smashing 44 not out off 23 balls.
The beauty of his innings wasn’t simply in smashing four fours and three sixes, taking the game by the scruff of its neck. It was in bringing a calming presence to the crease when Chahal was bowling a rampaging spell. It was in advising Shahbaz Ahmed at the other end, as the 27-year-old played yet another crucial knock for RCB on the night. The duo were clever enough to let Chahal bowl out, knowing full well that they could knock off 28 off the remaining 18 deliveries to be bowled by pacers with a wet ball and on a very wet outfield. In the end, Bangalore got there with five balls to spare.
It brings us to Karthik, and what he brings to the RCB table. IPL 2021 didn’t really go to plan for Karthik – the runs didn’t flow and Kolkata Knight Riders didn’t do well enough under his leadership. When he was dropped from Kolkata Knight Riders’ captaincy mid-way last season, it seemed the end of the road for him. An increase in broadcast appearances, on both television and digital platforms, meant he was already exploring other avenues. It wasn’t a surprise when KKR dropped him from their retention list altogether.
Captaincy at KKR didn’t work out perhaps because it was too much on his plate. At this stage of his career, Karthik doesn’t need two things to think about. You don’t want to be planning the next bowling change, or surmising the batting plan for the next game, when you can simply be meditating about your own individual game plan.
This is why 2022 comes as a breath of fresh air for Karthik. For him, at this stage, there isn’t much to prove and most IPL teams are building for the future. When RCB got him, it bode well. He wasn’t going to be in the captaincy discussion and it was very obvious why they had bought him – man the middle order and play the finisher.
Watching Karthik forever, he has always had that busy demeanour about him on the sidelines. In his mind, there are always calculations running about what the situation is like even when he is not in the middle. It is almost as if he is pumping himself ready for action, never knowing when the wicket falls and he would be called in to service. It is almost like his mind is a ticking bomb, bursting with energy and he needs to let it all out.
For Dinesh Karthik, at this stage, there isn’t much to prove and most IPL teams are building for the future. Image: Sportzpics
There is a complete reversal in his persona when at the crease, though. Karthik suddenly acquires Zen-mode – that one-track mind racers get when driving around at high speeds, oblivious to the cheering crowd around them, just concentrating on the road ahead. In that, he is precise, both with his timing and skill, with his presence of mind, the methodical approach to manoeuvring the field and picking gaps without the express need to play crafty strokes. And he brings it all together with finesse, like on Tuesday night at the Wankhede.
There is much Bangalore have lost in the likes of Chahal, or Devdutt Padikkal, or even Navdeep Saini. In Karthik though, they have regained a little something. And knowing RCB fans, they do like it already. After all, there isn’t much not to like about Dinesh Karthik.
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